Sayyid Brothers

The Sayyid brothers held the two great offices of the Mughal empire in the years after 1713. Wikipedia names them as Abdullah Khan, also called Sayyid Hasan Ali Khan and titled Qutb-ul-Mulk, who became wazir, and Sayyid Husain Ali Khan, who became Mir Bakhshi with the title Amir-ul-Umara. The article is not consistent about the elder brother's name.

They rose with Farrukhsiyar. He defeated Jahandar Shah near Agra on 10 January 1713 and took the throne, having proclaimed himself king at Patna in March 1712 (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism). Wikipedia says the brothers' influence grew from there, and that they blinded, deposed and murdered him in 1719.

The Sikh connection

Banda Singh Bahadur's last campaign and death fall inside these years. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Farrukhsiyar stepped up the campaign against the Sikhs and that Abd-us-Samad Khan was made governor of Lahore and charged with putting down the Sikh rising. The royal armies captured Banda Singh and his starving companions at Gurdas Nangal on 7 December 1715 after an eight-month siege. They reached Delhi on 27 February 1716. By Farrukhsiyar's order Banda Singh and about two dozen leading Sikhs were held in the Fort, and the other 694 were handed to the city kotwal to be executed at the rate of a hundred a day. Banda Singh was executed on 9 June 1716.

Wikipedia's opening paragraph says only that Banda Singh Bahadur was captured and executed during the brothers' rule. None of the sources opened names the Sayyids as directing the campaign or the executions.

Their fall

Husain Ali Khan was killed by Haider Beg on 9 October 1720. Abdullah Khan was defeated at Hasanpur on 15 and 16 November 1720 and imprisoned, and he was poisoned on 12 October 1722 (Wikipedia).

Key moments

• 10 January 1713: Farrukhsiyar takes the throne.
• 7 December 1715: Banda Singh Bahadur captured at Gurdas Nangal.
• 9 June 1716: Banda Singh Bahadur executed in Delhi.
• 1719: Farrukhsiyar deposed and killed.
• 9 October 1720: Husain Ali Khan killed. 12 October 1722: Abdullah Khan poisoned.

What they are remembered for. They are remembered as kingmakers who raised and deposed emperors. In Sikh history they matter as the ministers at the Delhi court when Banda Singh Bahadur and his companions were put to death.